Sadie's Fourth

Sadie turned four.  Boo hoo!  It was a depressing thing for me but I put on my happy face for her.  She's such a great little kid.  I hope she knows how loved she is.

We had a playdate in the morning with Tickners and Cricchios.  Bailey has the same birthday as Sadie.  She turned one.

Julie, Joseph, James, my mom and Gramma came up around 4:30.

The rest of the family arrived around 6PM, including our honored guest, Charlie.

This is a video of those who were in attendance:

Then we ate dinner.  Special thanks to all those who contributed.

Then we jumped on the trampoline in the dark while wearing glow sticks.

Then we sang and ate cake.  All the kids kept blowing out the candles while we sang and I kept relighting them.  It was cute!

Then we opened presents.  The bike was too big!  Opps.

Then we had to say goodbye.  Sadie had the time of her life.  It was sad for her to see it come to an end.

But don't worry, the next morning we had the after party where she got to play with all her presents and try things out.  That was fun, too.

Letter to Kimmy

It was another sleepless night in the Johnson household. I kind of wonder how we've done it this long. One or both of us gets up every hour or two. I don't think I've had more than two consecutive hours of sleep in months now. McKay did well around 6 weeks to 9 weeks, but it's been awful since.

And then there's Jax.  He has really been struggling lately too so we decided to move him up to a big boy bed in Sadie's room. The first two nights he slept the whole night through! Well, we aren't sure how long they slept.  We found them at 6:30AM with the light on playing with their toys. Sadie said, "Jax was on the floor so we decided to play."  Good idea, Sade! At least they weren't waking us up :) The second night they woke up and Sadie said, "Jax was jumping on my bed so I had to wake up."  Then the last two nights Jax has woken up several times. But, usually Ben just walks him back in there, stays a few minutes, and gets back to sleep quickly. Thankfully Sadie is a very deep sleeper and loves having him in there.  She says at night now, "Come on Jax, it's time for bed buddy."  How cute, huh?

Sadly, last night Ben was up several times with Shadow, too. Here's a condensed story of why: Jax threw a baby food jar yesterday morning while I was trying to get the kids ready for church. Well, I did a quick imperfect clean up job and then threw some paper towels in the trash can and still needed to finish later. Well, about 4PM yesterday shadow got into those paper towels and ate some of the glass. I found them with blood on them. He seemed fine last night but he was up all night throwing up and wanting to go out. I'm a little worried. We may need to take him to the vet. Great.

I gave a talk in church yesterday on forgiveness. Will you forgive me? I'm trying to be a very forgiving person now. If you want to offend me I won't mind. Well, I almost missed giving the talk because we had a crazy morning. We had birthday party on Saturday for Katie Tickner's little girl (Bailey - she has the same birthday as Sadie). Well, she called Sunday morning to tell us that one of the little girls at the party had a bad case of lice! So, she recommended that I put the kids in the shower and blow their hair dry because the heat would help to kill them if they jumped on our kids heads. (FYI - the kids never left Ben's side because it was stimulation overload so they just starred wide-eyed at all the action).  So, I put them in the shower anyways and P.S. - that is a lot of work, and I ended up getting wet so I had to re-get-ready after I was FULLY ready already and Jax ended up peeing all over the place and then threw the glass jar and McKay cried the whole time because he's been teething and running a fever for two days and wanted to be held and I was THIS CLOSE to saying - "FORGET IT! We're staying home" which the kids would have loved if I said because they hate going to church.  Sadie especially lately cries the whole drive there and is refusing to go to primary and Jax won't stay in nursery either.  Anyways, I'm side tracked. End of story - I made it to church *late* and the talk was just fine and we survived another Sunday, so that was good.  Oh, one more thing, Kristy Pickerol Cook was at church - so fun to see her.  Bishop called her up to give her testimony.  She may even come over for FHE tonight and Bishop's family.  Not sure yet. Wouldn't that be fun!

I'm desperately excited for Sadie' birthday this week. We're going to have a glow in the dark trampoline party. Should be fun. Sadie talks about it all the time. She's say, "Who's going to have a birthday this week? Is mommy going to have a birthday? NOOOOO. Is Daddy's going to have a birthday? NOOOOOOOO. Is Jaxie going to have a birthday? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Is Sadie going to have a birthday. YYYYEEEESSSSSSS!" She can't wait. We bought her a new bike and a some balls for the trampoline and puzzles and I can't remember what else. I'll be busy all day today getting the house cleaned up, cake made, presents wrapped, and decorations put up. Exciting!  Or I may end up taking McKay to the pediatrician and Shadow to the vet. Who knows how this day will go?

Anyways, pray for us to survive these sleepless nights.  I exaggerate not - I'm literally up every hour and a half on average.  It's time to let him cry and we're tried twice but Jax woke up and then poor Ben had to get up and McKay has been teething and it's just not fair to let him cry when he doesn't feel good.

P.S. I'm attaching pictures of my kids. It seems like all my recent ones are of McKay. I'm so painfully in love with that baby that all I do is stare at him all day long and take pictures of his stunning little face. My heart is no longer my own; it's his to have forever. He is my everything. Beautiful, wouldn't you say?

Cow Pie and the Dairy Farm

This is my dad:

He's a fascinating person. One of my heroes - a truly amazing human being. He has many layers. That man is a bundle of surprises. Perhaps I'll do a blog post about him one day.

Well, one evening when Sadie was a little tyke she kept running around the house shouting, "Cow Pa, Cow Pa, Cow Pa." Ben and I both thought she was saying, "Cow Pie."  Not the best thing to run around the house shouting, but she was a late talker so we encouraged her and helped her clarify the words and pronounce more clearly cow pie instead of cow pa.  Sometimes you just have to go with kids' interests, right?  Well, a few days later we were at my parents house and she started shouting again, although this time more clearly, "Cow Pie".  Then we realized.  Duh!  She was trying to say Grandpa.  Oops!  So, we tried correcting the problem but to no avail. Still to this day she calls my dad Cow Pie. We think of it as a term of endearment -  one of her first words that she worked long and hard to say clearly.  Although, we do get strange looks when she calls him Cow Pie in public.

Anyways, we received an email a few weeks ago from my parents saying they wanted to take the three oldest grand kids to a Dairy Farm.  Do you find it ironic that Cow Pie wanted to take them to a Dairy Farm where there happen to be many actual 'cow pies'.  He must subconsciously like his name, don't you think?

My mom was sick the day of the outing so Joseph filled in for her.  So the three Josephs, Ethan, and Sadie went on down to Sarasota for a day of cow pie fun.

She started crying when they first arrived and said she wanted to go home.
My dad carried her for 15 minutes and then she calmed down.  What a guy!

Playing in the hay maze

She actually does have a strong love for livestock.  

My dad looked pretty weathered by the time he brought Sadie home. We asked him how it went and he said, "I think they may have been a little young for it still."  Poor guy!

I think she had fun even though she was scared of the hay ride and cable cars. Care to guess what she talks about when we ask her about that day?  Two things - how fun it was to ride in my parents' high tech van and eating chicken and fries on the drive home. Great.

Guess what I did today

Today I met my newest nephew!!! 

Charles (Charlie) Michael Meyers was born at 6AM this morning and weighed 9 lbs and 1 oz. He was nearly three weeks early! He was in the breech position so he had to be delivered by c-section.  He is beautiful, happy, and healthy.  I love little Charlie!

McKay's Girlfriend

Addison Cricchio was born just 5 weeks after McKay.  She's a darling, petite little thing....

We were at the park with the Cricchios for a play date last week and Stephanie and I put the two babies together on a blanket.  This is what spontaneously happened.....

At first they were just hanging out...

Next Addison swats McKay and McKay tries to grab her hand....

McKay: Hmmm, is she thinking what I'm thinking?

She retracts but he goes searching and finds her itty bitty little hand....

McKay: Is it too soon?  We're only a couple months old?

He's feeling nervous about making a move and Addison is a little unsure about taking their relationship to a new level....

Addison: Who does he think he is?

And so they lay there, hand in hand, staring up into the afternoon sky and listening to the squeals of laughter coming from their siblings.

Addison slowly starts to warm up to the idea of holdings hands....

McKay holds on with two hands to Addison's little fingers - smiling all the while.

McKay: Gee, life is great!

Video

I haven't posted video in a really long time. When looking back, we actually enjoy watching home movies more than browsing through pictures, so I'm trying to be better about remembering to take video. Perhaps I should start playing around Adobe's Premiere Pro software?!?! Sounds like a fun new hobby :)

Anyways, this first video was taken this morning.  I actually thought I was on picture mode at the beginning so sorry if it's a little crazy at first.  I wasn't planning on doing video so forgive me for not having PJ pants on Jax and Sadie's still in her PJs.  It was impromptu.....

This is a little snippet of Sadie doing a few of her 'tricks' on the trampoline.  I think I took it last week.  Jax learned how to jump today.  Up until today he would just run fast on the trampoline but now he can actually jump. He was so ecstatic about his new found abilities and giggled for 15 minutes straight as he kept practicing.  He's really in the middle of a developmental leap right now.  He's changing so rapidly lately!

This last video was taken a few nights ago. Things were starting to feel really chaotic. Sadie had made a mess in the kitchen, McKay was getting tired, Jax and Ben were playing the piano loudly, the house was a mess, etc. So instead of giving into the stressful feeling I decided to document it....

Do you like how Sadie whispers in the movie? Like she doesn't want to be discovered? Ha!! She makes me laugh!

200,000

My car hit a major milestone this past week....

Yup, I broke the two hundred thousand mile mark.  Ben's little Civic has 5,000 miles more than mine does.  Yikes!  Good thing I don't have any pride or style because this is the little beauty I drive around in.....

But, in all actuality, I don't really care about driving a 10 year old van with 200,000 miles on it.  I don't even think about it really.  We're just grateful to have it.  It allows me to stay at home with my kids.  There are chaotic moments in the day when I feel otherwise but there really is no other place I'd rather be.  So, we drive old cars and skip out on fancy vacations and own a moderate sized home.  Those things allow me to stay home.  It's a no brainer trade off to me.

But have no fear!!  I won't be driving this car too much longer.  My brother-in-law Kurt has a DIY blog where he did a post about HGTV's Dream Home Giveaway and so I've been entering the contest everyday.  I'm pretty convinced we're going to win and that house comes with a brand new SUV.

I believe in miracles.  Do you?

Johnson Happenings

Too much to document; too little time.  Hopefully I can remember all the happenings in the last week.  Good thing I take pictures to jog my memory!

Last Thursday (12/29) we spent the day at my parents' house.  My mom, McKay and I went shopping in the morning; Ben, my dad, Joseph, and Uncle Gary golfed in the afternoon; and then my parents watched the kids in the evening so Ben and I could go out for Indian food.  It was a splendid day.  I did not take any pictures of the festivities but these are some of the pictures Ben took of the kids while we were out shopping.

Sadie picking leaves

Jax trying to reach to pick leaves.

Jax gives up and plays with the shovel instead.

For New Years Eve my parents randomly decided to come up and let Ben and I go on a date.  We tried to go to our favorite Italian restaurant but there was an hour and a half long wait. So, we went to Chili's instead.  Always delicious.

My parents stayed for a while and visited after we got back.  My dad told us all sorts of interesting stories about our relatives.  It was a fascinating evening.

The next day we went to Chuck E Cheese for my cousin's son's birthday party - little Carter. The kids seemed a little overwhelmed by all the craziness at first.  They were slow to warm up but enjoyed the games and tickets by the end.  Jax loved Chuckie and kept calling him Mickey. They had a great time, and it was wonderful to be able to support family.  Stephany planned one really cool party!

Carter, the birthday boy, examining his crown.

The next morning (1/2/12) Joe, Julie, & Fam came up along with my parents for a morning of fun.  Julie brought her homemade bread and we made French Toast and Vanilla Caramel Syrup.  It was rich but so delicious.  

Then we jumped on the trampoline and talked about weight loss.  We must have been feeling guilty about what we'd just eaten :)

On Tuesday (1/3/12) I spent the day organizing.  Here are some random pictures from that evening....

Wednesday (1/4/12) we went to the Homestead for Joy School.  We haven't had it in almost a month and Sadie has really missed going!  Here are a few random pictures from that day....

I LOVE Jax in this one.  He always wants to be one of the big kids.

We've had playdates with Cricchio today and yesterday.

We've been jumping on the trampoline a lot!

Anyways, it's been busy and we've had lots of good times.

Couple more things....

1) I'm in a weight loss competition with Cricchio's husband, Danny.  Whoever loses the most weight by April 1st wins $50 and the other couple is going to babysit their kids. Wish me luck.  I just signed up to run a 5K in February.  I'm working out like crazy and guess how much weight I've lost....I've gained 2 lbs.  Very depressing! I guess it's time to stop eating caramel sauce for breakfast :)

2) McKay now has two teeth.

3) Jax is no longer perfect.  He's been so difficult to manage lately.  I'm mourning the loss of my perfect little child.  But, he has started talking in the last two weeks.  He repeats most anything I ask him to say, and he's starting to put two words together on his own.

4) McKay is rolling over pretty consistently.  

5) I'm signing Sadie up for Gymnastics, I think.  I always thought I was a T-Ball and Soccer type of mom, not a Gymnastics and Dance type of mom.  But, now that we have a trampoline I'd like for her to know some tricks.  So, I think I'm going to sign her up. 

6) Our family just did a huge batch order of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and my 30 lbs. arrived today.  We ordered it through https://www.zayconfoods.com.  It only cost $1.69/lb and the birds were just killed two days go.  No hormones or preservatives added.  I'm excited to try it for dinner tonight.

7) It's Friday.  I love Fridays.  They are the best day of my week.  Happy Friday!

P.S. I've changed 3 poopy diapers since I started this post.  

P.P.S. Most of these pictures were taken with my new point and shoot camera.  Can you tell a big difference?